1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet handling apparatus capable of handling and stacking sheets, and an image forming apparatus provided with the sheet handling apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A sheet handling apparatus of the related art is described with reference to FIG. 11. FIG. 11 is a sectional view showing the entire construction of an image forming apparatus provided with the sheet handling apparatus of the related art.
In the image forming apparatus of the related art such as a printer, a copying machine or a printer machine, as shown in FIG. 11, sheets S having images formed in an image forming apparatus body 1200 are temporarily stacked on a handling tray 1540 in a sheet handling apparatus 1500, in which the sheets S are subjected to a post-handling such as to a aligning operation or a stapling operation.
After this, the sheet bundle is discharged by bundle discharge means 1580 to a stack tray 1581 having a sloped stack face, as shown in FIG. 11. Then, the discharged sheets S move on the sloped stack face of the stack tray 1581 by their own weights and are aligned at their rear ends on a rear end aligning wall. The number of stacked sheets depends on the vertical running stroke of the stack tray 1581.